Recent office apparatuses such as digital multifunction peripherals needed to be operated according to an operational policy such as a security policy determined by each offices and business entities. The security policy represents a basic policy relating to information security of the business entity. For example, a policy requesting a user authentication to operate an office apparatus, or a policy requesting data encryption on a communication pathway to communicate with other apparatuses is provided as the security policy.
A recent digital multifunction peripheral can, in addition to simply printing and transmitting an image data, function as a server so that a personal computer can access to an image data stored in the digital multifunction peripheral. Therefore, as with the case of a server device, the digital multifunction peripheral is strongly requested to follow the security policy.
In a conventional digital multifunction peripheral, an administrator executes various kinds of setting (hereinafter referred to as “user mode”) relating to the operation of the digital multifunction peripheral. Therefore, the digital multifunction peripheral can be operated according to the security policy at the discretion of the administrator.
However, in the conventional user mode setting, a large number of setting items have to be set in a correct manner. In a case where the user mode setting is not performed correctly, the digital multifunction peripheral is practically allowed to perform an inappropriate operation without following the security policy. As a result, there is a possibility that the security of office apparatuses will be threatened.
Therefore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-230178 discusses a system capable of externally setting a security policy as well as a user mode. In the system according to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-230178, the system compares the security policy with the user mode when the apparatus is activated. Then, the apparatus is allowed to operate only when the system determines that the setting of the user mode can follow the security policy.
In the conventional system, there may be a case where the user mode setting does not follow a certain security policy when the security policy is introduced thereto. In such a case, the multifunction peripheral may be exposed to a security risk such as an information leakage or unauthorized use of information when the multifunction peripheral is activated. Therefore, in order to solve the problem, the administrator needs to make the user mode follow the security policy by changing the user mode setting.
However, a huge number of user mode setting items are provided with respect to the multifunction peripheral. Therefore, when the user mode setting does not follow the security policy, it is difficult for the administrator to find out which user mode setting item has to be changed to follow the security policy.